George Rogers Clark

It was during the year of 1778, that General George Rogers Clark set out from Pennsylvania on a secret mission down the Ohio River. The Revolutionary War was in progress and concerns were mounting because of British and Indian attacks to the west. Clark gathered his troops on the premise that they were going to be defending the Kentucky settlements against further Indian attacks. Promising each man the payment of 300 acres of land for his service, the General led his men down the mighty Ohio River.

When Clark and his troops neared the area called the Falls of the Ohio, or The Rapids, they moved into the slower current near the Cain-Tuk-Y bank and pulled up on an island. The swiftly moving water lead towards the only navigational hazard on the entire 981 miles of the Ohio River, The Falls. General Clark and his men built a small stockade with shelters and planted a crop of corn on the seven-acre island and the island was appropriately named Corn Island thereafter.

Corn Island can no longer be seen because the majority of the island was destroyed when a cement mill quarried the limestone bedrock there in the late 1800's. The remainder of the island was inundated by water when the McAlpine locks and dam were built. As a reference point today, the famous Falls Fountain is anchored to the remnant of Corn Island each year. The fountain lies between Louisville, Kentucky and Clarksville, Indiana and between the 2nd Street bridge and the Conrail Railroad bridge.

As more and more pioneers came down the Ohio River, the small island community quickly grew and branched out to the Kentucky bank. General George Rogers Clark is credited with being the founder of Louisville because of this fact. This is the oldest English speaking settlement in the Northwest Territories. As the settlement grew, word came down from the East of the newly signed alliance between the struggling American colonies and King Louis the XVI of France. Another ally to fight for independence had been found. The inhabitants were so moved by the information that they decided to name their community after the King. Thus, Louisville gained it's name from royal lineage.

After Clark informed his troops of their true mission to capture the British strongholds, they boarded their flatboats and pushed off from Corn Island and into history. As the men entered the rapids, a full solar eclipse blocked the sun from the sky. The men wondered whether it was an omen of ill will or one of good luck. Compared with what was to come, the momentarily darkened sky was the least of their worries. The general led his men on through unbearable weather conditions, days on end without food and later marched them through the flooded countryside in the depth of winter. But, success was to be their reward for their efforts.

As George Rogers Clark pushed onward through British territory, he succeeded in capturing the forts at Vincennes, Cascaskia, and Cahokia, winning control of the Northwest Territory and doubling the size of the newly forming United States of America. All of this was accomplished without the loss of one man. In fact, it has been theorized that if Clark had not been as victorious as he was against the British, the Canadian and U.S. border might have been the Ohio River. Now there is something to think about!!

After Clark's successful military campaign in the Northwest, he returned to the Falls of the Ohio to live. He built a cabin on the point of land overlooking the foot of the Falls, known as the "Point of Rocks" and later called "Clark's Point". Clark petitioned the Commonwealth of Virginia to use the land he had accepted from the Shawnees to pay the men of his company for their military service.

The land was to become known as the Illinois Land Grant or commonly named Clark's Grant. The area comprised present-day Clark County, Indiana and more. Out of the 150,000 acres, one thousand acres was set aside for the development of the town of Clarksville, Indiana. From 1803 to 1809 George Rogers Clark lived here in his log cabin overlooking the splendid Falls of the Ohio. While Clark's cabin no longer exists, the homesite is part of the Falls of the Ohio State Park. Clark received 8,049 acres of the Clark's Grant as his share of land. Besides his cabin he also built a small grist mill on Mill Creek close to his home. Historians are still debating whether Clark's cabin was a one-story or two-story structure. Whichever, the fact remains that of all the territory Clark traveled in he chose the Falls of the Ohio as the place for his permanent home.

The Illinois Grant was laid out in an irregular fashion as it followed the Ohio River. The original survey was conducted by surveyer William Clark, George Rogers Clark's nephew, and was slightly skewed because of his failure to account for about five degrees from the magnetic variation. An interesting note is that "a dense cane break" existed north of the Clarksville site between Silver Creek and the Ohio River.

The actual grant, dated December 14, 1786, reads as follows: "Know ye, that by the virtue of an act of Assembly passed in the October session, 1783, entitled an act for surveying the lands granted to the Illinois Regement, and establishing a town within the said grant, there is granted by the said Commonwealth unto William Fleming, John Edwards, John Cambell, George Rogers Clark, John Montgomergy, Abraham Chaplain, John Bailey, Robert Todd, William Clark, James Francis Moore, Alexander Breckenridge, Robert Breckenridge, Richard Taylor, Andrew Heth, Richard Terrell, and William Croghan, as a board of commissioners to and for the uses and purposes expressed in the said act a certain parcel of land containing one hundred and forty-nine thousand acres, lying and being on the northwest side of the Ohio River.

Of the 149,000 acres in the Illinois Grant, the land was divided amongst the men according to rank and did not always equal the 300 acres originally promised to the men. Neither were the parcels of land awarded to each man always next to each other which made it impossible to establish a single farm. Brigadier General George Rogers Clark received 8,049 acres; Lieutenant Colonel John Montgomery received 4,851 acres; Majors Joseph Bowman, William Lynn, and Thomas Quick each received 4,312 acres. The remaining men also received acreage according to rank with the Captains receiving 3,234acres; Ensign Jacob Vanmeter received 2,156 acres; Cornet John Thurston received 2,156 acres; Lieutenants received 2,156 acres; Sergeants 216 acres; and the privates each received 108 acres.

The Letters of George Rogers Clark (1752-1818)